Scrubs 9.1 and 9.2 "Our First Day of School"/"Our Drunk Friend" Review - Featured

Scrubs 9.1 and 9.2 "Our First Day of School"/"Our Drunk Friend" Review - Featured

I was delightfully surprised by the Scrubs premiere episodes tonight. I see the effort to incorporate the new cast members into the Scrubs world, with Lucy (Kerry Bishe) eventually I'm assuming becoming more and more central to the series as the old guard of Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke and co. are slowly phased out, or in the case of John C. McGinley's Dr. Cox, and Donald Faison's Turk, adapting to the new form.

It's nice to see Denise (Eliza Coupe) socializing with J.D and Turk, and continuing to be fleshed out as a character. I was glad to see her grow as a person letting others in, both in her relationships with her colleagues J.D. and Turk, and also with Drew. Her growth was just baby steps, which is appropriate, anything more would be unbelievable.

I really believe that this new format will work. Despite the overhaul in cast and setting, the show has retained its same successful components of quirky characters, fantasy sequences, interesting relationships balanced with actual story lines within the hospital.

Lucy seems like she will work well as the new J.D., and her surrounding med students, quirky Australian included, seem like they will be able to grow into a well rounded supporting cast. This of course will all be held together with the magic that is Dr. Cox and his tough love teaching.

Other little things I loved:

- The return of "Guy Love" as J.D. and Turk ran into each others arms.

- Reference to House when Dr. Cox assigns numbers to his med students

- Dr. Kelso with the WingMom

- J.D. and Turk singing in the bar... and Drew joining them

Things I didn't like:

- J.D. has continued to have such little character growth in 9 seasons. He is still incredibly needy and requires constant approval from his students, peers and most importantly, Dr. Cox.

- Cole (played by James Franco's little brother Dave)... I don't know how long I can deal with this guy. Is he being set up to be the new Todd? I can see him actually being too much for the Todd to handle. He either needs to turn the dial down on his obnoxiousness or cut the screen time because really, I was watching his scenes through my fingers. In my opinion, his antics weren't funny.

Do you think the new format will be successful? Or do you miss the old Sacred Heart? What are your best/worst moments of the first two episodes?

It was a little weird seeing a new format, you kind of either just have to accept it or don't watch, but the thing that made the first two episodes work is that the bottom line was they were both incredibly funny. I thought Dr. Cox was as funny as he has ever been, asigning Drew the #1 sign that he was forced to send picture confirmations that he was still wearing it. Lucy's number going down as she continued to talk to him, refusing to understand the hot australian med students accent, basically everything he did worked in this first two episodes.
I think the thing that made these episodes work the most for me was the fact that Zach Braff was still a part of them. If he stays on for a full season I think the show will work, but I do not see how they are going to have his character exit without leaving a giant hole. He still has the interal voice-overs, which they are trying to give to Lucy also, But if he leaves and the show revolves around Lucy and her internal voice-overs, I think it becomes too familiar, we have already seen the young unsure doctor struggle internally with all of the stress of being a doctor, it would just be rehashing to go do it all over again with Lucy. JD trying to become the new Dr. Cox as the students mentor is new and something I would definitely be into following. Him teaching class from the tree only to get struck was hilarious, the security guards come with the tranquilizer gun to shot him down was great. But if he does leave,what then?
I like this new group of med-students(except Cole, they definitely need to develop his character and allow the audience to see him grow out of being a one-note douche or his character will not succeed). Denise and Drew are good, Lucy is alright as the girl JD, but again, I like all of these character as supporting ones around the original cast. They can be developed more and have their own storylines more so than what they gave to characters like The Todd, Snoop-dog resident, doug, or Lloyd, but I think they still need to be second-level characters, I do not see the show being as good if these characters have to lead the show without JD, Elliot, Kleso, or other original cast members to ground the stories and allow the audience to care about the new cast existing in the world of the original members.

RachelL - thanks!
Ak10 - I think that the show will be able to succeed without JD as long as there is a transitional period (which there will be). This will allow time for JD to be phased out as a central character as new ones will be developed and brought into focus. I think this approach would work.
Regarding Lucy as the new J.D., I don't think that her path and problems have to be the same as JD's just because she is a med student. The show has potential to do new and different things with the new characters within the typical Scrubs environment.

Cole is the Todd without being cute and in a repulsive way somewhat charming in his devious antics.
He plays the role of the punk who is obviously going to get knocked down more than a few notches over the course of the season pretty well though. There have been a few moments where I wanted to just hit him so he'd stop talking.

i think they have done a good job but I jus miss the old version of the show, and the old hospital, karla and elliot were funny and they are no longer in the show!!!
I think they should have kept the old cast and just added these new people into it...

Only real thing I loved was the Aussie intern. She made me smile. The other things I loved were - J.D, Turk, Elliot, Dr Cox, Dr Kelso, and the Todd - ironically the only elements that continued from the original 8 seasons of Scrubs.
The minute I heard Lucy's voice over, I swear I died a little. Great, I thought to myself. The byproduct of Elliot and J.D's personalities at their worst. Drew made me want to shove him in a trash can somewhere, yelling something vindictive about J.D. And Cole made me vomit a little. Just a little.
I guess I'll need time to let go of the original Scrubs...

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